New Crackdown by China on Dalai Lama Photos
2013-07-22
Chinese authorities in Tibetan-populated counties in Qinghai province are placing new restrictions on the display of photos of the Dalai Lama, searching personal vehicles and beating and detaining those who resist the photos’ confiscation, Tibetan sources say.
The move follows reports in June of a relaxation on the ban of images of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in Qinghai and neighboring Sichuan. The reports were rejected by Chinese authorities, saying there will be no softening in the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s “struggle” against the Dalai Lama.
“On July 15, the police were stopping all vehicles in the Yulshul [in Chinese, Yushu] area and checking for photos of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa,” another senior Tibetan religious figure, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Photos of Buddhist protector deities were also confiscated,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Those who tried to resist were severely beaten up,” he said.
“These days, all vehicles owned by common Tibetans are being stopped by the police and searched for photos of the Dalai Lama,” a U.S.-based Tibetan named Lobsang Sangye told RFA, citing contacts in the region.
“If they find any photos of the Dalai Lama, those are confiscated,” he said, adding, “In Chumarleb [Qumulai] county in Yulshul, two monks who attempted to resist were detained and taken away.”
Policy shift?
The move appears to reverse a policy shift reported in June, and described as “experimental,” in which authorities are said to have told Tibetans in several parts of Qinghai that photos of the Dalai Lama could be openly displayed.
“From now on, photos of the Dalai Lama can be displayed, and no one is permitted to criticize him,” officials told Tibetan monks at a June 19 meeting held in Qinghai’s Tsigorthang (Xinghai) county, according to a Tibetan resident of the area.
A public notice titled “Don’t Listen to Rumors” has now been widely circulated by government departments in Qinghai’s Golog (Guoluo) prefecture, however, declaring there has been “no change” in China’s policy regarding the Dalai Lama.
“You must fight against the Dalai Lama’s efforts to split the Motherland and damage the work of the leadership of [the ruling] Chinese Communist Party and socialism,” says the notice, a copy of which was obtained by RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Chinese leaders regularly accuse the Dalai Lama of trying to “split” Tibet away from China, whose troops marched into the self-governing Himalayan region in 1950.
But the Dalai Lama denies seeking independence for Tibet, saying that he seeks only a “greater autonomy” that will preserve Tibetan religious and cultural freedoms for his homeland as a part of China.
Reported by Lumbum Tashi, Dorjee Tso, and Guru Choekyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Free Tibet media release: 17 July 2013
Immediate use
Tibetans tortured in detention following shooting at Dalai Lama birthday celebrations
Free Tibet has obtained further, confirmed information about the shootings in Tawu, eastern Tibet, on 6 July and events that followed. In at least one confirmed case electric shock was used on a 72 year-old man in detention. Many people were severely beaten during the incident with some, subsequently, requiring hospitalisation. A large protest was staged by the local community following the incident, which secured the release of many detainees. As previously reported (1), monk Sonam Tashi was shot in the head during the incident and hospitalised: no information has been released to friends or family about his current condition.
The shooting incident
As previously reported, members of the local community, including many monks and nuns, gathered on 6 July to celebrate the birthday of the Dalai Lama. New and reliable information has now emerged about the sequence of events leading to the shooting.
Around 3:00 pm, Tibetans started to go home, but armed security forces surrounded the area and prevented people from leaving. Security personnel stopped cars (picture available, 2) and, when people verbally protested, members of the security forces threw stones at the leading car.
Attendees at the event then protested that their gathering was legal and that the security forces were acting illegally when they damaged the vehicles. Security personnel then privately offered apologies and agreed to compensate the car owners for the damage but the Tibetans insisted that the compensation and the apology should be official.
An argument ensued and some members of the security forces began to beat some of the Tibetans, two severely. Other Tibetans responded by throwing stones. At some point during the altercation, security forces opened fire, leading to an unknown number of injuries. Free Tibet can confirm the names and some details of injuries for 14 of those injured during the incident and three injured following the incident (3, selected portrait and injury photos also available).
Detentions
At least twenty people were arrested, including some of those injured in the shooting. Free Tibet has confirmed the names of 14 detainees (4). Many detainees were severely beaten and 72-year-old Yama Tsering, who had sustained an arm injury during the incident, had four ribs broken and was also subjected to shocks from an electric prod (names of those confirmed injured, 3). There are unconfirmed reports that other detainees were also subjected to electric shocks. Lobsang Choedon, a nun, was beaten in detention and has been hospitalised as a result of serious injuries sustained.
Protest
Later on 6 July, approximately 3000 people gathered at Tawu Monastery to protest and appeal to the authorities to release the detainees. They threatened to remove their children from school and to stop cultivation of farm land. Local truck drivers also threatened to strike.
At around midnight, the detainees were released and authorities offered a total of 13,000 yuan (£1,400/ US$2,100 approx) to compensate for the injuries. The injured victims refused the offer of compensation on the grounds that it was inadequate and did not address the broader political problem.
Hospitalisation
Eleven people reported serious head, leg and arm injuries at the hospital, but others did not seek treatment for fear of being detained. Authorities have prevented family and friends from visiting those in hospital and their current conditions are unknown. Wanchen, a nun from Gedun Choeling nunnery who attempted to visit her friend in the hospital, was turned away. On her way back, Chinese security forces intervened and beat her, resulting in a broken arm.
In remarks made at a high level meeting at the US State Department last week, a member of China’s ruling State Council claimed that people in Tibet are “enjoying happier lives, and they’re enjoying unprecedented freedoms and human rights” (5).
Free Tibet Director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren said:
“This incident is confirmation that China under Xi Jinping will still use potentially lethal force against unarmed Tibetans defending their rights to follow their beliefs and will still use torture without hesitation against those in detention. The litany of gross human rights abuses arising from this single incident should be a wake-up call to world leaders that China’s PR on Tibet is as cynical as it is false. It is gravely concerning that more than a week after it was widely reported, Western governments have failed to make any public comment or condemnation of this severe and unjustifiable use of violence by the state.”
-ends-
For further information or comment, contact campaigns and media officer Alistair Currie:
E: alistair@freetibet.org
T: +44 (0)207 324 4605
M: +44 (0)780 165 4011
Notes for editors
(1) Free Tibet press release, 9 july 2013: http://www.freetibet.org/news-media/pr/chinese-forces-open-fire-following-prayer-gathering-tibet
(2) Picture available from Free Tibet
(3) Names of people confirmed injured during the incident
1. Tashi Sonam, monk, bullet wound in head (photo of serious head wound)
2. Aga Tashi, layperson, multiple bullet wounds on back. Other injuries indicative of being beaten (photos of wounds)
3. Sangpo, layperson, shot in leg (portrait and leg injury photos)
4. Tsewang Choepel, monk in charge of monastery finances, bullet wound in leg (portrait and leg injuries photos)
5. Tashi Gyaltsen, lay person, nature of injuries unconfirmed (portrait photo)
6. Jangchup Dorjee, monk, nature of injuries unconfirmed (portrait photo)
7. Lobsang Dorjee, monk, nature of injuries unconfirmed (portrait photo)
8. Nyendak, layperson, bullet wound in leg (photo of wound)
9. Gyamtso, disciplinarian at the monastery, nature of injuries unconfirmed
10. Dolma, nun, nature of injuries unconfirmed
11. Gyaltsen, two ribs broken
12. Yama Tsering, 72, arm injury from incident; four broken ribs and electric shock during detention
13. Dokapa Choedon, severely beaten, nature of injuries unconfirmed
14. Karnga Ngawang, severely beaten, nature of injuries unconfirmed
Names of those confirmed injured following the incident:
15. Lobsang Choeden, nun, severly beaten in detention, hospitalised (portrait photo)
16. Wanchen, nun, beaten after visiting hospital
17. Dickyi Gonpo, beaten, lost hearing (wound photo)
4. List available from Free Tibet
5. US State Department, 11 July 2013 http://www.state.gov/s/d/2013/211850.htm
Free Tibet is an international campaigning organisation that stands for the right of Tibetans to determine their own future. We campaign for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected.
Alistair Currie
Campaigns and Media Officer
T: +44 (0)20 7324 4605
Free Tibet
28 Charles Square
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N1 6HT
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Tibetans in critical condition after Chinese armed police shoot into crowd celebrating Dalai Lama’s birthday
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Several known Tibetans are in critical condition and many more injured after Chinese armed police fired into a crowd of Tibetans gathered to celebrate the 78th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on 6 July in Tawu (Ch: Daofu) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
According to information received by TCHRD, at least nine Tibetans have sustained serious gunshot wounds and are believed to be in critical condition. Many others, both monastic and lay Tibetans, whose exact numbers cannot be determined immediately, have been injured after paramilitary forces from People’s Armed Police (PAP) lobbed teargas shells and beat them. The injured are mostly monks from Nyatso Monastery, nuns from Geden Choeling Nunnery and a considerable number of lay Tibetans in Tawu County.
Gyen Tashi Sonam, a monk and teacher at Nyatso Monastery, who was shot in his head, is being treated along with others at a hospital in Dartsedo (Ch: Kangding) County. Graphic photographs show the bullet wound on Gyen Tashi Sonam’s head, a gaping hole on the front left part of his head. The condition of Ugyen Tashi, a layman, is said to be serious with hopes of his survival receding fast given his severe injuries. According to latest information, Ugyen Tashi was shot at with at least eight bullets. He was first taken to County hospital where doctors, failing to handle the case, referred him to a provincial hospital in Chengdu where he is now being treated.
Gyamtso, a monk disciplinarian (Tib: Gekyo) at Nyatso Monastery was injured along with fellow monks, Jangchup Dorjee and Lobsang. Jangchup Dorjee is a brother of Palden Choetso, a nun from Dakar Choeling Nunnery who died of self-immolation protest on 3 November 2011 in Tawu. Laymen injured by gunshot wounds included Tashi from Khoro nomadic camp, Nyendak from Dukya nomadic camp, Sangpo from Kyasor nomadic camp. Dolma is the only injured nun identified so far. She hails from Dunkye nomadic camp.
Chinese armed police arrive to surround the venue of birthday celebration.
Chinese armed police arrive to surround the venue of birthday celebration.
Local Tibetans in Tawu County including monks and nuns from Nyatso Monastery and Geden Choeling Nunnery had gathered on the morning of 6 July 2013 to celebrate the 78th birthday of the Dalai Lama. As Tibetans stood on the hillside – worshipped by Tibetans as the home of Machen Pomra, one of the most popular mountain gods in Kham – burning incense, hanging prayer flags and making offerings in front of the Dalai Lama’s portrait, vehicle loads of armed police arrived at the scene and attempted to cut short the birthday celebration. Armed police then surrounded the hill.
This provoked the crowd as Tibetans objected and questioned the armed police about the legality of their actions. “They asked why it was illegal to conduct religious rituals and under what national laws it was illegal to hold rituals,” a source told TCHRD quoting local eyewitnesses in Tawu. A former administrative staff (Tib: chanzoe) of Nyatso Monastery (name withheld) who participated in the celebration later recalled that the monks tried to negotiate with the armed police to avert bloody confrontation but were rebuffed. “They [armed police] didn’t listen to us at all. They just started beating and shooting,” a source quoted the monk as saying.
The same source said armed police stoned the vehicle of Jangchup Dorjee as he attempted to drive up the hillside to reach the celebration venue. Armed police also used teargas shells to break up the crowd and beat the Tibetans. Sources say hundreds of Tibetans in Tawu attended the celebration although it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of those injured in armed police excesses.
Armed police stop cars driven by Tibetans to reach the celebration venue.
Armed police stop cars driven by Tibetans to reach the celebration venue.
Many Tibetans were detained the same day but were released after lay Tibetans and monks gathered at the courtyard of Nyatso Monastery and called for their immediate release. When armed police reached the courtyard full of local Tibetans at Nyatso Monastery, they expressed their apology and promised to bear responsibility if anyone died or sustained life-threatening injuries. But according to a source, local Tibetans believe that the armed police were just executing orders from above and that the apology must come from the prefectural government of Kardze.
So far Nyatso Monastery has borne all costs associated with the treatment of injured Tibetans, the source told TCHRD.
The situation has eased a little after staff and monks at Nyatso Monastery mediated with the security forces, who no longer surround the monastery as they did since 6 July. But local Tibetans continue to face restrictions on their movement and the situation is said to be tense.
Last year on 6 July, armed police stopped local Tibetans from celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday on the same spot, a source with contacts in Tawu told TCHRD.
China vows to step up fight against Dalai Lama
Yu Zhengsheng’s comments indicate China’s new government has not softened stance towards exiled Tibetan leader
Reuters in Beijing, Tuesday 9 July 2013 12.11 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/09/china-dalai-lama-tibetan-leader
China’s leading official in charge of religious groups and ethnic minorities has vowed to step up the fight against exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, as a rights group reported police shootings of monks marking his birthday.
The comments by Yu Zhengsheng, number four in the ruling Communist party’s hierarchy, appeared aimed at thwarting speculation that China’s new leadership could take a softer line on the Dalai Lama.
Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, to be a violent separatist. The Dalai Lama, who is based in India, says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.
Visiting a heavily Tibetan area of the western province of Gansu, Yu told local officials and religious leaders that the Dalai Lama’s separatist activities ran counter to the country’s interests and to Buddhist tradition.
“For the sake of national unity and the development of stability in Tibetan regions, we must take a clear-cut stand and deepen the struggle against the Dalai clique,” the official Xinhua news agency cited Yu as saying.
Buddhist leaders must be guided to oppose separatism and any efforts to damage the Communist party’s leadership, added Yu, who is head of a largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament that aims to co-opt religious and minority groups.
Yu repeated that ties with the Dalai Lama would improve if he openly recognised that Tibet had been a part of China since ancient times and abandoned his Tibetan independence activities, Xinhua reported.
“The Dalai Lama’s ‘middle way’ aimed at achieving so-called ‘high-degree autonomy’ in ‘Greater Tibet’ is completely opposite to China’s constitution and the country’s system of regional ethnic autonomy,” Yu added, according to Xinhua.
Speculation China would take a softer line towards the Dalai Lama had been fuelled in part by an essay written by a scholar from the Central Party School, who said that China could take some steps toward resuming talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives, which broke down in 2010.
Rights groups also say there has been some discussion about lifting restrictions on public displays of the Dalai Lama’s picture in his birthplace of Qinghai province.
Despite a heavy security presence, protests and resistance against Chinese rule in Tibetan areas have continued.
Police in a restive Tibetan part of Sichuan province opened fire on a group of monks and others who had gathered to mark the Dalai Lama’s birthday over the weekend, seriously injuring at least two, the US-based International Campaign for Tibet said.
While Chinese security forces often use heavy-handed tactics to stop protests in Tibetan regions, they rarely use guns.
Officials reached by telephone in Ganzi said they had no knowledge of the incident.
China’s foreign ministry said it was also unaware of the reports, but said the Dalai Lama was using the opportunity of his birthday to promote his separatist agenda.
At least 119 Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest against Chinese rule since 2009, mostly in heavily Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces rather than in what China terms the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most have died from their injuries.
Chamdo at Center of Beijing’s ‘Re-Education’ Campaign
2013-06-21
An unprecedented Chinese campaign to identify and monitor the political views of villagers in rural areas of Tibet has been especially heavy in the restive eastern prefecture of Chamdo, where residents are forced to fly the Chinese national flag and display photos of top Chinese leaders and are barred from visiting temples, sources say.
Of the more than 20,000 work-team members who have been assigned to the campaign across Tibet, over 7,000 have been deployed to monasteries and villages in the Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) area alone, a scene of frequent protests against Beijing’s rule, said Tibetan poet and blogger Woeser, citing information gathered from travelers to the region.
“These days if you travel in the rural Chamdo area, you won’t see traditional Tibetan prayer flags. Instead, you will see the Chinese red national flag with five stars,” the Beijing-based Woeser told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
All 500 monasteries in Chamdo have been forced to fly the flag, Woeser said, adding, “Even individual monks must raise the flag on their private homes.”
Political re-education
The campaign was launched by the ruling Chinese Communist Party leadership nearly two years ago under the guise of an exercise to improve rural living standards in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
Aside from intelligence-gathering, party cadres and other Chinese officials carry out widespread “political re-education” and establish “partisan” security units under the campaign, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report earlier this week..
“Sending cadres periodically to the grassroots is a common practice in China, especially in more leftist administrations and periods,” Columbia University Tibet scholar Robbie Barnett told RFA.
“But nothing has happened in China on this scale in terms of the cost of the operation, the percentage of local cadres involved, and the duration of the project,” Barnett said.
Tibetan families in Chamdo’s farming and nomadic communities must also display photographs of top Chinese leaders, with a ceremonial white scarf—a symbol of respect—draped around the photos, Woeser said.
“If they refuse, this will be treated as a ‘political error,’” she said.
Local resistance
Attempts by Chinese authorities to force Chamdo residents to fly the Chinese flag met with stiff resistance earlier this year.
On Feb. 10, Chinese police in Chamdo’s Dzogang (in Chinese, Zuogong) county rounded up and brutally beat a group of Tibetans following a protest at the start of the Lunar New Year, leaving two with broken bones and taking at least six into custody.
The protest in the county’s Meyul township came after authorities insisted that area residents fly the Chinese national flag from the roofs of their homes, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“But the Tibetans refused to fly the flags from their roofs,” the man said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Instead, they tore them down and stamped on them,” he said.
Permits for kerosene
In a bid to end the wave of self-immolation protests in which 120 Tibetans to date have set themselves ablaze to challenge Chinese rule, authorities now also require Chamdo residents to present special permits to buy kerosene, Woeser said.
“Government living assistance will be withdrawn from any community in which a resident self-immolates. And if any member of the monastic community self-immolates, their monastery will be shut down,” she said.
Government employees, students, and retirees in Chamdo are also banned from visiting temples or taking part in other religious activities, Woeser said.
“A statue of the [fourteenth-century] religious saint Thangthong Gyalpo that was standing in a school courtyard was even pulled down and thrown into a river because of its ‘irrelevance’ to the school’s architecture,” she said.
In one Chamdo village, a government team was required “to register ‘key personnel’ in the village and maintain ‘close vigilance over them,’” Human Rights Watch said in its June 18 report.
“The term ‘key personnel’ typically refers to people considered likely to cause political unrest,” HRW said.
HRW said that according to official reports, China’s present campaign of monitoring Tibetan areas is “unprecedented” in its scope, size, and cost.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English with additional reporting by Richard Finney.
VOA News
June 27, 2013
A New York-based human rights group says millions of Tibetans have been forced to leave their homes and livelihoods as part of a mass government relocation program aiming to control the ethnic group.
Human Rights Watch says in a newly released report Beiing’s efforts to build what it calls a “New Socialist Countryside” in the Tibet Autonomous Region are “radically altering” Tibetans’ traditional lifestyle.
It says over two million Tibetans have been rehoused through government-ordered renovations or new home constructions since 2006, while hundreds of thousands of nomadic herders have been relocated.
The government says the program is helping improve the living standard of Tibetans. It denies that forced evictions take place, insisting the relocations are entirely voluntary and that Tibetans are grateful for the new housing.
But Human Rights Watch says it has found that large numbers of those relocated did not move voluntarily. It says many were forced into often sub-standard housing and now face financial difficulties as a result of the move.
U.S. officials say the American Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, is in Tibet for a three-day visit to meet with residents and check on human rights conditions. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said this is the first time a U.S. ambassador has traveled to Tibet since 2010.
The group’s report included before-and-after satellite photos of Tibetan villages, some of which appear to have been almost entirely demolished and replaced with “New Socialist Villages” made of identical houses in rows.
The Chinese government has made it very difficult for rights groups and journalists to monitor the human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China. The region has become even more restricted to outsiders following a series of mass anti-government demonstrations and riots in 2008.
More recently, Tibetan areas of China have been hit by a wave of self-immolation protests. Since 2009, at least 119 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest what they see as Chinese repression of their religion and culture.
Many of the self-immolators have also called for the return of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who fled China in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese occupation.
Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a separatist who is looking for Tibetan secession, despite the spiritual leader’s insistence that he is only seeking greater autonomy for Tibet.
But despite the insistence by many rights groups that heavy-handed Chinese policies are only creating further unrest, there are few signs that Beijing plans to back down.
Human Rights Watch says the government has already announced plans to relocate more than 900,000 people by 2014.
In its Thursday report, the New York-based group warned that forging ahead with such programs “in a broadly repressive environment will only fuel tensions and widen the rift between Tibetans and the Chinese state.”
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry on Thursday rejected the Human Rights Watch report, saying the organization “always makes groundless and irresponsible” accusations against China.
The spokesperson said the group does not have the right to comment on China’s policy on ethnic and religious affairs, and insisted that China has “made progress” in these areas.
South China Morning Post
Stop modernising Lhasa, pleads Tibetan writer
Wednesday, 08 May, 2013, 11:25am
Comment Blogs
Amy Li
When Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser protested online this week against a commercial development in her hometown of Lhasa, thousands supported her by reposting her message and sharing their own thoughts on Tibet.
Most of the supporters said they had visited Tibet as tourists. Others said they had seen it only in pictures and movies. But few probably knew how difficult it has become for Woeser and other relocated Tibetans to go home to the autonomous region in western China.
When Woeser, who lives in Beijing, went back to visit her mother in October, she had to go to Jilin – where her hukou, or residential permit – is registered to get a travel document from local police. Only after police issued a letter stating Woeser had no crime history and a form was signed by an authority and stamped by the local precinct could she set off.
She could tolerate the procedures, but not what she saw at home.
Once home, Woeser said she was astonished by both the scale and the nature of commercial developments going on in the ancient part of the Tibetan capital.
“Lhasa is being destroyed by excessive commercial development,” she wrote in the headline of a petition on Saturday that was quickly censored after it went viral on Weibo. “Please save Lhasa[1],” she pleaded in the letter, which was reposted on her blog.
The development project in question was Barkhor Mall, a shopping centre being built in the old town section of the city. The mall, once finished, would cover an area of 150,000 sq m and have more than 1,000 parking spaces, according to its developer.
“How much underground water will be drained to make room for the parking?” asked Woeser, evoking memories of the panic and discontent among many locals when underground water was drained to build a big mall a couple of years ago. Development companies took two years to drain the water.
“People worry about sinkholes and collapses, and other damages to the old town,” she wrote.
What worried Woeser more was what many described as a trend by the local government to turn Tibet into another “Lijiang old town”, a historic town in Yunnan province now bustling with tourists. It’s constantly criticised for being overly commercialised and having lost its soul after many original residents moved out.
Lhasa locals worry that what had happened to Lijiang is now happening in Lhasa.
For instance, a plan revealed by the government said vendors and residents in the historic Barkhor area would be moved away from this historic and popular place for pilgrims and locals. Their houses and shops would be used to attract new businesses including restaurants, bars and art galleries.
Under the plan, old vendors would be moved to the new mall, and residents would be relocated to the suburbs, with each household receiving 20,000 yuan (HK$25,000) to 30,000 yuan in compensation.
“Lhasa doesn’t exist for only tourists,” Woeser told the South China Morning Post. “There are real people who live here and it’s also a religious place. You can’t just turn it into a Sanlitun village.” Sanlitun village is a high-end popular shopping destination in Beijing.
As much as locals fear that development will change Lhasa’s architecture, culture and religion, they were also scared of retaliation and do not dare speak out against the plans, said Woeser.
While most international media have given their attention to the recent cases of immolations by Tibetan monks, Woeser argued that a more imminent disaster in Lhasa has been largely ignored.
She decided to make her plea for support on social media, knowing it would mean possible retaliation from the government.
“I therefore plead to Unesco and other international organisations, Tibetan scholars and experts, and all of you, please stop this horrible modernisation from committing unforgettable crimes to Lhasa’s old town environment, culture and architecture,” she wrote.
Woeser’s letter received thousands of comments and reposts from supporters on Weibo before it was taken down by censors on Monday
David Cameron ‘to visit China this year’
BBC News 7th May 2013
David Cameron Downing Street said it was up to David Cameron to decide whom to meet
David Cameron aims to visit China this year, Downing Street has said, following reports the prime minister has been barred from the country.
Officials in Beijing are said to be angry that Mr Cameron met the Dalai Lama last year.
But Number 10 said no ban was in place and the government wanted to foster a “stronger relationship” with China.
Mr Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg met the Dalai Lama at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
The Buddhist spiritual leader is seeking a measure of independence from China for his homeland of Tibet.
‘Not pressure’
Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “It is entirely reasonable for the prime minister to decide who he meets.
“The Chinese government always lobbies hard against any meetings between foreign governments and the Dalai Lama. We have made clear in advance to the Chinese government that British ministers will decide who they meet and when they meet them.”
Asked whether the prime minister felt under pressure from Beijing to apologise, his spokesman replied: “Not pressure, no.”
Questioned over whether Mr Cameron was effectively banned from China, he said: “No. I believe the prime minister aims to go before the end of the year.”
He declined to reveal whether dates for a proposed visit had been discussed, but said: “We regularly discuss issues of mutual interest and importance with the Chinese.
“The prime minister has recently had warm engagements with both the (Chinese Communist) party secretary and premier. Government ministers have had around 14 meetings with their Chinese counterparts since May last year.”
The spokesman added that UK exports to China had grown more than those of any other EU country last year.
He said: “We want to establish a stronger relationship with China, recognising that it is in the interests of both countries to manage our differences with respect and co-operate as much as possible.”
The meeting between Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg and the Dalai Lama had been part of the government’s approach of seeking “dialogue and discussion and gathering a wide range of viewpoints on issues of importance”, said the spokesman.
Mr Clegg told Sky News: “We have a very important economic relationship with them [China]. But that doesn’t mean we should somehow give up on what we believe in when it comes to human rights and freedoms which we will continue to express in a respectful but nonetheless firm way.”
First Tibetan Women’s Soccer Team Blazes a Trail
19.04.2013
DHARAMSALA — Last year, an American teacher and 27 high school students from across the Tibetan Diaspora formed the first Tibetan national women’s football (soccer) team. Since then, they have overcome local critics who opposed the formation of the all-female team and become an inspiration for others.
News that a team of Tibetan women would enter a men’s soccer tournament last May sent ripples of excitement through this sleepy hill station at the foot of the Himalayas. There was also some disapproval.
Even Tibetans who have long lived in exile retain some conservative cultural views, says José Cabezón, Dalai Lama chair professor of Tibetan Buddhism and cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“Tibetan women have always had a considerable and powerful role within the family, but less so in society,” said Cabezón. “The patterns that existed tend to be preserved and change is not easily won in society.”
Cassie Childers is the 31-year-old teacher from New Jersey whose vision of the team one day playing in the Olympics is the driving force behind Tibetan women’s soccer.
She says Tibetan men already have a national team and the Tibetan government-in-exile offers broad funding for boys’ school clubs.
“But there was nothing for the girls,” said Childers. “So we had two aims. The first is to empower all Tibetan women. The second, very political, is to form Tibet’s first women’s national team, training our players to speak their truth, to tell the world about Tibet, as a tool for peace.”
Many of the young women selected for the team were born inside Tibet and had walked with their parents across the Himalayas to escape Chinese rule.
Many had never kicked a soccer ball before. To play their first match in the Gyalyum Chemo Memorial Gold Cup, players from nine schools in the Diaspora trained intensely for a month.
Childers says as soon as the tournament began, questions about the team’s credibility seemed to fade, along with any opposition to women’s participation in competitive sports.
“There were 5,000 Tibetans in attendance,” she said. “When they saw our team walk onto that ground, something shifted. You could see this is something real. This is something big.”
And, then shortly after the second half began, Lhamo Kyi scored the first goal in the history of Tibetan women’s soccer.
“This girl kicked the ball in the net and then ran into the middle of the ground and did a flip,” said Childers. “And, that was the moment history changed. I never heard another [negative] comment.”
Like other young footballers around the world, team captain Lhamo and star midfielder Phuntsok Dolma aspire to the success achieved by heroes like British footballer David Beckham.
But a sense of responsibility, removed from the hype and money of the professional game, infuses the girls’ discussion of football. Dolma’s dream is to become a coach, like Childers.
“People say Tibetan women can never do what men can do,” said Dolma. “But [we have shown] we can. In Tibet women don’t get any opportunities. So I will teach them and say to them, ‘You must never give up. You can take this opportunity.”
Sarah Rosemann of Williams College, Massachusetts, is conducting a study on women in Tibetan society. She sees significant gains being made in gender equality, but offers some caution.
“Women are standing up like this; starting to demand the men’s roles and to get involved in really pursuing their independence,” said Rosemann. “A lot of that comes from being exposed to different ideas while in Diaspora. But, there is a lot more objectivization of women, as well.”
Although they may not have won the tournament, Coach Cassie and her players have already won broader victories.
By 2017 – emulating the Palestinian men’s team that has twice played against China – these young Tibetan women hope to achieve full international status from soccer governing body, FIFA.
(Articles from Voice of America 6th May 2013)
http://www.asiasentinel. com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5358&Itemid=422
Did China Cover Up A Mining Disaster?
Evidence suggests killer landslide was manmade
Nearly three weeks after the death of 83 workers in a landslide near a village in Tibet, which official Chinese media characterized as a natural disaster, suspicion is rising that it resulted from improper mining activity.
The disaster occurred in Zibug, known as dZibug in Tibetan and Sibu in Chinese, in Maldro Gungkar County roughly 63 km northeast of Lhasa. Nearly two hours before sunrise in Tibet on March 29, the landslide roared about three kilometers down the valley, burying workers in a mining camp belonging to Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Ltd., a subsidiary of China Gold International Resource Corp., under 10 stories of rocks and mud. Immediately after the incident, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported that it was a natural disaster and said rescue workers were hopeful of finding workers alive. However, researchers in the United Kingdom and at the Tibet Environment Desk in the exile capital of Dharamsala in India began raising suspicions.
Four days after the tragedy, a spokesperson for China Gold International Resource Corp., which operated a mine employing the dead workers, insisted that it was a natural disaster. Asked how she knew it was a natural disaster, she said, “It is all in the news.” She did not make any further comment, describing it as a “sensitive issue.” So far Xinhua is the only source of news about the incident because it was reportedly the only media outlet that had access to the area.
Rescue efforts continued until at least April 4, by which time Xinhua reported that 66 bodies had been dug from the rubble. On the same day an official memorial ceremony was reportedly held at Zibug Village, about 6 km below the site of the landslide. There were no survivors. Of the dead, 81 were Chinese, two were Tibetan women.
“Take care and live on for a good life,” Xinhau quoted Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party Chief of the Tibetan Administrative Region, as saying to family members. The official news agency has not reported anything further on their online English news. But researchers outside Tibet started discovering more evidence that appears to contradict the official Chinese claim.
Last Tuesday, the Environment Desk of the Tibetan exile government released a report that said it was the “result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of minerals in the Gyama Valley – a manmade phenomenon rather than merely a ‘natural disaster’.”
The UK-based independent researcher Adrian Moon conducted a study as well, which he made available a few days before the Dharamsala report. In his study, he indicated that mining activity on the top of the mountain was more likely to be the cause of the disaster.
On April 12, David Petley, Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the UK, said his analysis also found that the possible cause was more likely man-made.
“The properties of the landslide are consistent to what you’d expect to see from mining rather than from natural processing,” Petley said.
These findings raise another question. Why would Chinese official media and China Gold International immediately jump to the conclusion that it was “natural disaster”? Tibet environment researcher Gabriel Lafitte says Xinhua’s conclusion actually made him more suspicious of the reliability of its claim. He said landslides require more complex investigations because they destroy much of their evidence.
China Gold International identified the mountain from where the landslide occurred as Tseri Mountain. Google Earth images show the changes to this mountain between 2010 and 2012. An earlier image shows roads had been built on the mountain. A later one reveals greater activity taking place on the top of the mountain and the development of more roads. There are unidentifiable machines seemingly engaging in work on the ridge of the mountain. From some angles, the mountaintop appears to have become flatter. Jigme Norbu, a researcher at the Tibet Environment Desk in Dharamsala, described the mountain as being “decapitated.”
According to a report on the American Geophysical Union’s blog, a satellite image shows that the slope that failed “had been subject to a huge mining operation – basically a mountaintop removal exercise. Perhaps more importantly, the spoil that has been removed has been dumped down the slope that subsequently collapsed. The scale of this operation is very large, and it is notable that the spoil has mostly accumulated on the upper part of the slope, although some has passed to the foot of the slope. So, how come the Chinese news reports about the event did not mention this huge modification of the slope?”
The landslide took place at the southern side of Tseri Mountain, which falls under the jurisdiction of Zibug Village. It is about 30km via road from the Gyama Township where the Huatailong mining operation has been largely taking place, according to previous reports. The two townships, or xiangs, are located at each end of the valley where Tseri Mountain stands in between. According to Moon’s study, the mining company was previously only licensed to mine in Gyama area and did not come under the jurisdiction of Tashi Gang Township.
Observers like Petley also questioned the safety practices of the Chinese mining company. He said he was surprised to see the location of the camp where the workers were buried, most likely while sleeping.
“In Europe or North America, you wouldn’t normally expect to see people camping so close down the slope.” In fact a larger mining landslide occurred in the US state of Utah on the evening of April 12. But no one died or was injured because the company was monitoring the situation and evacuated workers eight hours before it occurred.
Google Earth images of Tseri Mountain that were taken before the mineworkers’ camp was set up show it was located in a very steep valley below the mountain.
The incident also raised the issue of inequality in job opportunities. Tibet observers like Robert Barnett point out that having only two Tibetans in the workforce of 83 people reveals how the locals are denied receiving benefits from mines like this.
China has claimed that the locals are benefiting from the mine. On March 20, an official Chinese information website on Tibet called “China’s Tibet” reported Maldro Gongkar County held a ceremony for the graduation of 100 local students from a school in Yunan Province with different skills in mining. The report said all the students had received scholarship from the mining company and that the company spent a total of RMB5 million ($84,000) for the program. Beijing Review reported August last year that the company spent $28.48 million on environmental protection, although some Tibetans connected to the region say the environmental program was mainly tree plantations in a lower valley.
But money is not what the Tibetans are fighting for, says Tibet researcher Robert Barnett. He says Westerners assume Tibetans want more money from the mines, but that the real fight is not for money.
“What we hear Tibetans saying is not that they want more money, though of course they raised that generally about the fact that the money should be benefiting the area, but what they’ve been raising, though, is about the damage to their environment—the long term damage.”
One Tibetan living in the San Francisco Bay Area who was originally from Gyama area, said he believes that the local Tibetans had protested against establishment of the mine.
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